The present invention relates to an optical measurement system for measuring spatial coordinates and/or orientation of a probe or probing system.
From EP 0 607 303 B1, an opto-electronic system for point-by-point measurement of spatial coordinates is known. The system described provides a probe comprising a minimum of three light sources at known coordinates relative to a local probe fixed coordinate system and with a touch point at a known location relative to said local coordinate system is brought into contact with the point for which the spatial coordinates are to be determined. An opto-electronic spatial direction sensor determines the angles in two dimensions (spatial direction) towards the light sources. Based on the known positions of the minimum three light sources and the touch point in the local probe fixed coordinate system with respect to each other and based on the determined spatial directions of the individual light sources and the spatial direction sensor, the system can deduce by photogrammetric calculation methods the position and orientation of the probe and therefore the spatial coordinates of the touch point.